An American Abroad

Ben Munger

An American Abroad

As of now, I can finally say that I feel like my study abroad experience is beginning. Last Thursday I got a very pleasant surprise when I found out that I’m going to Argentina!!! It still hasn’t fully hit me, but my excitement level is already through the roof. With that being said, I feel as if my ability to start preparing has increased tremendously now that I know where I’ve been placed. Luckily, I’ve already had a little taste of Argentina. In January there was a group of students here at MC that were from Argentina. I had the privilege of having one of them as my roommate, and I ended up spending more time with that group than with anyone else. That experience showed me only a portion of the culture of Argentina, but I still think that it has given me a little bit of an idea of what to expect.

Just like the cultural-context inventory showed, Argentina is a high context place, and this was also noticeable with the group that was here. While some Americans are typically not similar to some of the high context traits, there is one part of it that I am very excited about. Having grown up in the South, there were a few things that have been engrained into my mind as being important. While football, fried food, big trucks, and fishing all fall under this category, I’m more proud of southern manners. I realize that manners vary from culture to culture, but from manners and politeness I realized how important relationships are. From everything I have seen about Argentina, the people are very big on relationships. Not only will this help me adjust to the culture, but I also hope that it shows them that Americans aren’t always concerned with being busy or focusing on themselves.

While I feel pretty confident about the type of relationships I’ll have in Argentina, one adjustment that I already know I have to make concerns my school work. It’s not that I have a problem in school or getting work done—it’s actually the opposite. While I love relationships and prefer having a few deep friendships instead of a lot of shallow ones, I may as well leave the planet when I start doing school work. If I start doing homework, I essentially shut out everything around me until I’ve completed my task. I want to make sure that don’t let this get in the way of my experience. I am definitely going to focus on friendships and take breaks from schoolwork when someone tries to speak to me.

Relationships are quickly surfacing as something that is an obvious goal of mine during this trip. While I’m good at having a genuine interest in people and their lives, I want to make sure that I don’t get too wrapped up in the schoolwork. Even more than schoolwork, I want to make sure that I don’t let anything get in the way of developing friendships with the people around me. If I can do that, then I honestly think I can consider my entire trip a success.